Muscat: Iran and the United States will hold more negotiations next week over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme, Iranian state television has reported at the end of the first round of talks between the two countries since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Iran’s state-run broadcaster Saturday revealed that US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “briefly spoke together — the first time the two nations have done that since the Obama administration.
Tehran’s declaration that the two sides spoke face-to-face — even if briefly — suggests the negotiations went well even to Iranian state TV, which long has been controlled by hard-liners.
In a statement released Saturday afternoon, the White House described the discussions as “very positive and constructive,” while conceding the issues that need to be resolved “are very complicated.”
“Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome,” the White House said.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One Saturday while flying to Miami for a UFC event that the talks are “going okay.”
“I can’t tell you because nothing matters until you get it done so I don’t like talking about it but it’s going ok. The Iran situation is going pretty good, I think, he said.
The next round of talks will take place Saturday, April 19, according to the Iranian and American statements.
This first round of talks began at around 330 pm local time. The two sides spoke for over two hours at a location in the outskirts of Muscat, Oman’s capital, ending the talks around 550 pm local time. The convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff returned to Muscat before disappearing into traffic around a neighbourhood that is home to the US Embassy.
The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear programme if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Talks took place Saturday afternoon in Oman
Associated Press journalists saw a convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff leave the Omani Foreign Ministry Saturday afternoon and then speed off into the outskirts of Muscat. The convoy went into a compound, and a few minutes later, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei wrote on the social platform X that the “indirect talks” had begun.
Afterward, Araghchi described the meeting as constructive to Iranian state TV, with four rounds of messages exchanged during the indirect portion.
“Neither we nor the other side are interested in fruitless negotiations — so-called talks for the sake of talks, wasting time, or drawn-out, exhausting negotiations,” he said. Both sides, including the Americans, have said that their goal is also to reach an agreement in the shortest possible time. However, that will certainly not be an easy task.”
That the two men spoke face-to-face satisfied a demand of the Americans. Trump and Witkoff both had described the talks as being “direct”.
“I think our position begins with dismantlement of your programme. That is our position today,” Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal before his trip. “That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries.”
He added “Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponisation of your nuclear capability.”
Araghchi, however, sought to downplay the encounter as “a brief initial conversation, greetings and polite exchanges” — likely to avoid drawing the anger of hard-liners in Iran.
Badr al-Busaidi, Oman’s foreign minister who shuttled between the two sides, said the countries have a “shared aim of concluding a fair and binding agreement”.
“I would like to thank my two colleagues for this engagement, which took place in a friendly atmosphere conducive to bridging viewpoints and ultimately achieving regional and global peace, security and stability,” al-Busaidi wrote on X. “We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal.”
Sanctions relief and enrichment remain top issues
While the US side can offer sanctions relief for Iran’s beleaguered economy, it remains unclear just how much Iran will be willing to concede. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could only maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%.
Today, Tehran’s stockpile could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons if it so chooses, and it has some material enriched up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Judging from negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal in 2018, Iran will likely ask to keep enriching uranium up to at least 20%.
One thing it won’t do is give up its programme entirely. That makes the proposal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a so-called Libyan solution — “you go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution” — unworkable.
Iranians, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have held up what ultimately happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed with his own gun by rebels in the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, as a warning about what can happen when you trust the United States.
AP
